


rhythm attached to you

by sanguinedawns



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, M/M, everyone sorta lives au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23587042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanguinedawns/pseuds/sanguinedawns
Summary: “What behavior would that be?” the stupid man muses stepping dangerously close to Obito’s personal space, it’s not a bother though because his traitorous blood pumping organ skips at the action, “Please enlighten me.”Or; Obito feels guilty one last time and moves forward.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Obito
Comments: 8
Kudos: 178





	rhythm attached to you

**Author's Note:**

> henlo, my dearest kylie. thanks for being patient and this isn't much, but i hope you enjoy it anyway. i love you SOOOOOO much. we can consider this a quarantine gift. hope it cheers u up. love u baby. 
> 
> p.s. the only thing missing is taka. next time I'll make sure to incorporate them too.

Fate has written a faulty line down the expanse of Obito’s palm. The contours splinter in jagged spikes and his heartline is a rocky tumble vanishing into a forked road over his wrist.

But he’s taken that too with a brave face because you can sit and complain about the trial’s life throws at you or you move forward since no matter what, no matter how hard it gets, it _could_ be worse. He’s been one of those who’ve had the rotten privilege to find out exactly how bad the crooked path gets.

That doesn’t mean a picture of him bright-eyed and hopeful didn’t exist, nor does it mean that part of him stopped existing.

Obito peruses the contents of his fridge, he’s not supposed to cook tonight because there is a village-wide celebration and there is going to be food. He’s got something to look forward to.

Ever since his grandmother passed away a few years ago, he couldn’t have the Uchiha native cuisine anymore, at least not as frequently, because despite his valiant efforts over reproducing his Jiji’s tasteful cooking he always fails. Konoha’s an amalgamation of different clans and cultures, but nothing compares to the heat found in the Uchiha food, the dried spices and the oil pickles.

Today, however, Mikoto promised to make his favorite stew and rice dish. Obito glumly closes the door of the fridge, fishes for the dried rice cakes in his cabinet and swallows it down with a glass of milk. He slips into the form-fitted black long-sleeves, the military green Jōnin jacket comes on next, then digging feet into scuffed boots.

The sun tangos with the last of the night’s dying cobalt, he locks his door and heads towards the first shop that opens this early. Uruchi waves a hand as she sweeps the floor in front of her shop, she shouts at him once he enters the threshold of the sweet-smelling bakery, “We got a batch of curry bread out right now! Teyaki put some aside for you.”

Obito grins raising both his thumbs before getting the saran wrapped pastries, ducking under the awning with a signature salute, “Thanks, oba-san!”

She shakes her head yelling at his retreating form about eating better at his big age, but today is a special day and on special days you are allowed to spoil yourself a bit. That’s what Jiji said. Obito lives by that philosophy.

He finds the kids near a training post, Sasuke is peering at a scroll Naruto’s pulled open in rapt attention, balanced on his knees, and Sakura is nagging about how if they got caught Kakashi will have their neck. Obito drops onto the wooden post surprising the three genin, Naruto quickly hiding the scroll behind his back and Sasuke moving closer to conceal the large tube.

“Oh, come on now, we’re friends you don’t have to hide it,” Obito dangles the curry bread in their innocent, doe-eyed faces, “How about a trade?”

Naruto lies through his teeth, as terribly as he always does, “We don’t know what you mean!”

Sasuke nods fulling supporting the foolishly transparent lie, and Sakura who has taken to believing she’s the voice of reason whispers to her partners’ in crime, “Toldja we’d get caught.”

They’re all the same, three peas in a pod. Obito tilts his head, the aroma of the freshly baked pastry wafting under the noses of three very hungry novice shinobi, “So?”

“No way!” Naruto huffs and puffs, his cheeks are so round and the word around town is he’s Obito’s reflection in the new generation of genin—privately, Obito hopes that isn’t the case. He’s been alone for the better part of his life and he wouldn’t want that type of fortune to be extended to someone so sincere, so earnest.

Sasuke snidely comments, shifting his weight on his feet, “Future Hokage’s aren’t keepers of any secret.”

“C’mon, what of the Uchiha alliance, cousin?”  
  


Sakura narrows her eyes at Obito, hissing in Sasuke’s direction, “Don’t fall for it Sasuke! He’s going to tell Lady Kushina!”

Naruto’s ears twitch at the name and Obito pouts at the children scheming to push him out of their inner circle, “When have I ever disappointed you three? Don’t mix me with that lazy ass teacher of yours.”

“Are you being bullied by children again?” Kakashi’s droll observation diverts all their attention. Obito peers at the man lazily perched on one the tree branches, loosely holding onto his forever beaten copy of Icha Icha, and the one exposed eye softly meets his own.

He rolls his eyes in an exaggerated motion, “You’ve corrupted them under your tutelage.” The silver-haired man flashes next to him, and Obito turns his chin on his own shoulder, Kakashi’s smile presses into his face mask, he leans into the shell of his ear, “Good morning, Obito-san.”

Obito flushes darkly, it’s Naruto clearing his throat that directs him to look at the tweens, Sasuke’s deadpan on top of Sakura’s averted gaze and Naruto’s blushing cheeks, “Oi, you old farts! Can you do that elsewhere?”

Kakashi easily slides into his blank expression, voice measuring out passively, “Didn’t I tell you three to leave the scroll alone?”

He doesn’t even sound disappointed, but the three rascals seize being caught red-handed. Kakashi extends a hand and Naruto reluctantly hands over the closed parchment, “Now, how’d you steal it from the archives?”

“What? Like it’s hard?” Sasuke scoffs, and Naruto grins cheekily pointing a thumb into his chest, “C’mon, Kaka-sensei, give us more credit than that.”

Obito prods further, “How’d you get past Genma?”

Sakura snickers and all three share a furtive look. Kakashi waves an errant hand to move along, “Maa, what did I ever do to have kids like you?”

“I have a dad,” Sasuke clarifies.

“Me too.”

“Me three!”

Kakashi thoughtfully rubs at his chin, “And yet you’re my darn children. Funny how that works.”

“Would that make obito-sensei our other dad?” Sakura ponders out loud.

“Toto can’t be my dad he’s my cousin,” Sasuke frowns and Naruto elbows him, “He’s basically my brother!”

“Technicalities,” Kakashi gestures.

Obito leaps from the post into a standing position, unwrapping the bread, “Did you three want this or—” Like pillagers starved of food they run to him.

Kakashi pulls him to a tree while his kids eat, “None for me?”

“You’ve done nothing deserving to get any,” Obito puffs out his chest. Then smacks Kakashi’s shoulder, “Where were you yesterday?”

Kakashi frowns behind the cloth covering his mouth, “what? You miss me or something?”

“As if,” Obito snorts. “Rin was asking of you.”

“You’re even worse about lying than Naruto,” Kakashi teases, “It’s okay, you can say you can’t live without me, every moment apart is a hardship—”

“Oi!” Obito slaps him upside but Kakashi catches his wrist, “Aren’t your dramatics getting out of hand? Must I report to the Hokage her trustee frontman has gone senile?”

Kakashi deliberates on that for a partial moment, “You’re going to report about me to yourself?”

“Wait, what?” Obito then realizes what is being said because sure he’s not a once in a generation genius like his good friend Kakashi Hatake, as he's generally slow on the uptake, but. “Oh, right. Yes. I will be reporting you to _me_ first decree as Hokage will be dealing with your behavior.”

“What behavior would that be?” the stupid man muses stepping dangerously close to Obito’s personal space, it’s not a bother though because his traitorous blood pumping organ skips at the action, “Please enlighten me.”

“You’ve gotten out of hand!” Obito pushes him. Sasuke looks up from where he’s splitting the last bread of his own share between the other two—Obito is acutely aware of the largest piece going to the blonde with an insatiable appetite. Kids these days, so innocent, so stupid.

“Now, _toto_ ,” the twinge of mockery lancing through the nickname causes Obito to narrow his eyes, “I was under the impression you’re quite fond of me in your space—in fact, I think we’ve made something of a habit out of it.”

“Senile,” Obito walks away, punching the word with a yell, “ _and_ delusional, bakashi!”

Sasuke shouts after him, “Don’t forget to pick me up tonight!”

Obito grumbles out lowly, “Brat, you’re old enough to go—”

“I’ll tell Mother otherwise about the time—”

Obito grunts in a less than honorable defeat.

~

Obito is dressed in his uniform. Sasuke chooses a blue yukata matching his mother’s lighter one. Itachi is away on a mission, but Obito has a suspicious inkling he’d be matching the duo too if he were here. Fugaku is in a deep green one himself, he claps Obito’s shoulders proudly and he is bashful under the lights strung through the streets of Konoha.

Kushina has her hair left in braids, she takes him into a warm hug and pushes Naruto to Sasuke who tugs on his wrist away from the adults towards the games. Minato ruffles his hair.

“There you are!” Rin slams into his back, winding an arm around his shoulder and ecstatically speaks, “We’ve been looking everywhere!”

 _We_ are Kakashi and her, they’re both in summery clothes, Kakashi’s dark black haori has gold embroidery on it and Rin’s purple yukata has stamps of pink azaleas.

“We were supposed to meet up by the tower an hour ago, you lot were nowhere in sight,” Obito whines.

Kakashi sticks his pinky finger in his ear, cleaning around the opening, one eye squinting and the other on display since he doesn’t have his hitate covering it, “Baaa, I slept in.”

“You’re a grown-ass man, stupid Kakashi, how are you still—”

Rin squeezes his arm pointing at the stall where you aim a toy gun to pop a balloon, about 10 clean shots earn you the grand prize, “Let’s play!”

Obito has shitty aim—it doesn’t matter whether it be a kunai, a shuriken or a fucking toy gun. Minato used to tell him it’s fine because he excels at other things, but these are basics and no one likes being bad at the basics.

Kakashi, of course, shows him up when he wins the giant teddy bear for Rin, she happily accepts dragging them to the rice bag toss—which she’s the best at. Obito sulks in the background, “Don’t frown too much we already have to bear with your ugly face.”

Obito slowly glares at his former teammate, “Is that why you cover yours? As a courtesy to our poor eyes?”

Kakashi raises a pointed brow, but Obito steamrolls over his taunts with a haughty snicker, “It’s okay, Kakashi, we all can’t be born studs.”

“Hold on, now, who’s been feeding you this nonsense?”  
  


“Shizune—”

“That woman thinks Tonton is cuter than Pakkun, we can’t be accounting her terrible taste.”

Obito balks, “Okay, fine, Anko once said too—”

“Anko is strictly into women.”

“So? She has eyes, doesn’t she? It simply means her taste isn’t biased,” Obito counters.

“It’s a little biased, you swap gate duty with her every other Friday when she visits Rin. That’s hardly an objective opinion—”

“Listen you bastard,” Obito starts but Kushina is calling out to him for the coronation.

Kakashi smirks behind the scarf around his neck, Obito flips him off, “Fuck off, bakashi!”

The ceremony is short and joyous, there are words exchanged to the village and in-between the Hokage that’s stepping down and the one that’s being appointed. Kushina is teary-eyed and proud and speaks of vows about how she wants Naruto to grow up just like him.

Obito smiles a little sadly around that, all these people gathered around him wishing for his prosperity and there is still a nook inside his chest that resonates emptily. Team 7 hug him around the waist, even Sasuke gives up the broody act to excitedly smile at him, and Mikoto kisses his forehead. The crowd disperses towards the buffet, food brought from every clan to celebrate. 

Later he quietly sneaks to the cemetery, he sits next to the fairly new headstone and whispers in careful vanity, “Guess what, Jiji?”

He waves the hat emblazoned in the kanji reading _fire_ , eyes stinging around the edges—it had been a promise at her deathbed that he’d cry less. For the past few years, he’s been pretty good at keeping it, but right now there is a rooted loneliness drowning him ceaselessly.

Growing up he didn’t know what parent’s love was, he only knew what his grandmother gave him in tender portions and gentle touches to his cheek, to his forehead, to the brush of his hair. Obito thought that’s how it was for everyone, anyone, but then he met people who had it better. It grew a pit of ugly jealousy. Children hardly can decipher the difference between the plaguing bitterness and the variables of loneliness.

Early on, he realized, a part of him will always be alone. Then it changed a little, smidge by smidge, first there was the academy, then there was sensei and then came Kakashi and Rin. Sometime after Mikoto married into their clan and she was all about family, talked of hers far too often than not, and needled him into joining them for dinners.

He doesn’t properly remember when Itachi was born, but he was there when Sasuke was. Jiji would say that they’re lucky because _they’re_ Uchihas, and Uchihas were family to all—they were fierce and protective, and it was in his blood forged from fire.

Still, a quiet hollow sat at the base of his ribcage, the thing is he’s not completely familiar to it any longer and part of him is guilty he feels that way. That’s who he is. Choosing to think it’s wrong to let go of that sadness he’s burdened since childhood for happiness offered to him in handfuls.

“Obito?” the soft lilt used to pronounce his name jerks his head up, he can feel the wetness of his cheeks and the dry sob wedged in his throat.

Kakashi ambles to him only to crouch down until they’re face to face, “None of that today.” Kakashi’s always soft-spoken, even when he’s grinding Obito’s gears and making him pull at his hair, there is a certain monotony in his lilt that is comforting. Right now it’s tattered in a gentle urge, he swipes his thumb on the scarred skin of Obito’s cheek, “This is supposed to be a happy moment.”

To be spiteful he jests, “These could be happy tears.”

“I know you too well to believe in that,” Kakashi muffles his rising antagonism, “They’d be happy, y’know?”

“I’m not sure I do, I don’t even remember them,” Obito relays truthfully as he has yet to learn how to deceive Kakashi—all these years between them and he’s still not able to fool this man. “Do you know if Sakumo is?”

“I have chosen to believe, yes.”

Obito’s heart thuds at that. All that loneliness was meticulously picked grain by grain, one careful gesture at a time, by this man. Because in between them they shared the same past, and the crooked lines of their hands told them, perhaps, the same future too.

That’s what Obito has chosen to believe.

They leave the cemetery shortly after, Obito hesitantly let’s go the vestiges of the hollow loneliness and guilt, Kakashi takes his hand in his own and leads him back to the crowd full of people who’ve given a home to his heart.

Their palms kiss each other’s callousness, and Kakashi is hiding him under the boughs of the weeping willow. He tips down Obito’s hat and furtively murmurs, “Permission, Hokage-sama?”

Obito laughs out loud, brazen and cheerful, “Permission granted.”

It’s soft by their standards. They’re all teasing touches and hard lines, but Kakashi nimbly holds his jaw and Obito’s fingers purchase in the wealth of silver-greys of his boyfriends’ hair.

A sigh from him takes Obito’s bottom lip between their own, Kakashi kisses him with uncharted affections, a zealous demonstration of his love. Warmly he lavishes the way Kakashi tastes, a hint of mint, the sake he’d sipped on during the buffet, and a welcome reminder. Obito gets to have this and he gets to have more too.

Kakashi comes up for air and Obito misses the feeling of his stolen breath, he murmurs around the swelling peak of his mouth, “Can the Hokage be given a citation over public indecency?”

Obito pecks him chastely, then a little solidly, he coaxes Kakashi’s lips open to lick the roof of his mouth, and spills into a scheming smile, “Not sure, are you planning on finding out?”

With a shift of his hand, Kakashi’s rubbing a thumb over his hipbone under his slightly raised shirt, “Don’t tempt me.”

Obito challenges an arched brow, “Pity the fool who will.” He kisses him breathless once more, and another—and the night ends a little like that. Kakashi’s kisses, Rin needling the two to buy her Takoyaki, the children parading their wins—Naruto asking Sasuke if he’ll share his goldfish with the rest of them.

Obito’s chest squeezes comfortably around the summer breeze.

~

Kakashi is assigned on a mission to the land of waves, nothing more than an escort.

Obito stands at the gates listening to Naruto’s tirades about Kakashi’s tardiness, “Ne, you’d think, he’d be here. Even old Tazuna is here.”

Sasuke nods along as if he cares, he probably would if he wasn’t still sleep-walking—never a fan of the morning. Sakura is intermittently entertaining their guest. Kakashi climbs rooftops and plops down on the hard earth with a thud, scratching the nape of his neck sheepishly at his students—donning that ridiculously misleading aloof persona. As if he’s not a trained mercenary.

Naruto waves goodbye ahead of the rest. Kakashi staggers back next to him watching the kids with one eye, “Any last words, my dearest Hokage?”

Obito’s chest beats the rhythm attached to Kakashi’s hidden smile, “Just three.”

He whispers into Kakashi’s ear receiving a full grin.

~

**Author's Note:**

> kudos, comments all that jazz.


End file.
